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You just made his point...its not in first world countries. Yet its been around half a century.

On that note im going to have to bow out of this Convo. It is not possible to continue debate and dialogue with those not comprehending the sciences behind it yet simply discounting remarks from those that do.

Did you read the article? It actually confirms what Juram has already told us:

They found virus in saliva, breast milk, stool, semen, and tears.

Only one saliva specimen contained culturable virus. Eight were positive for genetic material only, suggesting that saliva inactivates the virus and prevents it from being able to replicate.

The virus appears to persist in breast milk and semen well after convalescence. Survivors need to abstain from breast feeding (at least some weeks) and sexual activity (3 months) after they recover.

They did not find virus in urine and only one skin sample was positive. No sample of vomit, sweat, or sputum was positive. A single body louse was negative.

"Other than in samples grossly contaminated with blood, EBOV was not found by any method on environmental surfaces and by RT-PCR on the skin of only 1 patient. These results suggest that environmental contamination and fomites are not frequent modes of transmission, at least in an isolation ward."

This was a small study and there was logistical difficulty in handling the samples, which had to be transferred to the CDC. Yes, they sent ebola to the US! In the year 2000!

Juram has already posted a much larger study showing us that contacts who get sick have actually had physical contact with an ebola victim. Just living in the same household does not appear to be a risk factor.

Yes, the high death rate limits the spread.

New HIV infections are up a bit in men who have sex with men, but they are down in IV drug users and heterosexuals. That means we need to ramp up education in the gay community. It does not mean that effective treatment of HIV has allowed the virus to change in some way in order to spread more easily. Otherwise, the incidence would be up in all populations. How HIV spreads is much more dependent on the behavior of people who carry it than on characteristics of the virus itself.

But we don't know if the culturable amount is the same as the amount required to cause infection

You just made his point...its not in first world countries. Yet its been around half a century.

I don't know why I need to keep repeating this... Ebola outbreaks have historically occurred in remote regions of Africa with little or no infrastructure. This is why it has never (yet) made it to the First World; it is difficult for the disease to migrate when the host dies long before he or she could ever be transported to an airport.

Unfortunately, this time around the outbreak is occurring in more populated areas where victims can make it to airports before showing progressed symptoms. Why do you think the CDC has been tracking suspected cases coming out of Africa on international flights? Couple that with the fact that foreign aid workers are falling sick despite taking all precautions to avoid infection, and we have the potential for a real life pandemic on our hands. People aren't dropping dead from Ebola because Africa lacks proper treatment facilities for them, they are dropping dead because this particular infection is highly lethal and currently has no cure.

That being said, you can continue to insinuate that the rest of us are idiots for being concerned whilst you choose to stick your head in the sand. However, that doesn't make you seem any more intellectual than the genius who suggested Ebola is far less dangerous than a treatable case of malaria.

But we don't know if the culturable amount is the same as the amount required to cause infection

The point is that even under primitive conditions environmental surfaces are not teeming with ebola. Actual tracing of contacts who get sick shows they have actually touched ebola victims, not just been in the same room with them.

The point is that even under primitive conditions environmental surfaces are not teeming with ebola. Actual tracing of contacts who get sick shows they have actually touched ebola victims, not just been in the same room with them.

I think you posted this link yesterday, if so, I apologize for ripping it off.

With the recent concern over Ebola patients arriving at US hospitals, the threat of epidemics, spread either by natural means or introduced by terroristic or other agenda-driven means has come up for discussion.

What seems to be overlooked is how easily any of these situations can be brought about; and one need only look at most major cities. Where would be the most logical place for a pandemic to originate?

The answer is that it could originate among a population that is already full of high-risk disease carriers and intermingles with the general population: in other words, the bums (or in PC parlance, the 'homeless').

It's not a difficult scenario to imagine at all. Municipal governments are unwilling to control this population---a population living in revolting sanitary conditions and infesting every public space used by the general population. For example, a terrorist could easily introduce a contagious pathogen among this vile group: they contaminate one another in the bum jungles and food banks, spread out over a city and contaminate normal people and move from city to city without being traced. It wouldn't take much more than half-dozen such intentional contaminations in cities with high bum populations to initiate a nationwide pandemic.

This situation isn't without historical precedent; the typhoid epidemics of the 1890s were spread across the US continent by 'transients'.

In light of the seriousness of the Ebola pandemic, maybe municipal governments should start considering whether their 'tolerance' may not have serious consequences.

With the recent concern over Ebola patients arriving at US hospitals, the threat of epidemics, spread either by natural means or introduced by terroristic or other agenda-driven means has come up for discussion.

What seems to be overlooked is how easily any of these situations can be brought about; and one need only look at most major cities. Where would be the most logical place for a pandemic to originate?

The answer is that it could originate among a population that is already full of high-risk disease carriers and intermingles with the general population: in other words, the bums (or in PC parlance, the 'homeless').

It's not a difficult scenario to imagine at all. Municipal governments are unwilling to control this population---a population living in revolting sanitary conditions and infesting every public space used by the general population. For example, a terrorist could easily introduce a contagious pathogen among this vile group: they contaminate one another in the bum jungles and food banks, spread out over a city and contaminate normal people and move from city to city without being traced. It wouldn't take much more than half-dozen such intentional contaminations in cities with high bum populations to initiate a nationwide pandemic.

This situation isn't without historical precedent; the typhoid epidemics of the 1890s were spread across the US continent by 'transients'.

In light of the seriousness of the Ebola pandemic, maybe municipal governments should start considering whether their 'tolerance' may not have serious consequences.

So exactly what solution are you proposing here? Criminalize the homeless? Dump them on someone else's lawn?

if they could just find that monkey, they could make a vaccine that will cure everyone with ebola!

But first they'd need to commandeer a helicopter, get Mrs. Pananides to use her Coast Guard boyfriend to locate the ship Ty Cook, crash the news-anchor desk with vital monkey information and a reachable phone number, then use a small girl with an apple as bait to lure the monkey. After THAT, then yes, they can make the Ebola vaccine.

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